supply trips

Patna, Feb. 22: A rail roko programme launched by residents of Talcher in Orissa hit the power supply in Bihar for the second consecutive day today. Already reeling from a severe power crisis, the state received less than half of 1,692MW scheduled central allocation.

The agitation of Talcher residents demanding stoppage of important trains has stopped the supply of coal to Talcher-based National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) plant. The generation of power in five of its six units at the plant has come to a grinding halt because of coal shortage. That, in turn, has hit the power supply to Bihar.

The state today received only 785MW of the reduced allocation. The residents of Bihar cities had to bear with hours of power cut because of the short supply.

“The agitation of Talcher residents is still going on. Hence, we did not received coal supply from Mahanadi Coalfields Limited for the fifth consecutive day,” an NTPC official at Talcher told The Telegraph. Asked about the availability of the power from centrals sector, Bihar State Electricity Board spokesman and director of public relations Hare Ram Pandey told The Telegraph: “We received 708MW of electricity from the central sector in the morning, which later increased to 785 MW. There has been no supply from the Talcher plant.”

Patna has been receiving far less power than the daily requirement. “On an average, the capital is supplied around 413MW of electricity. But the supply now is between 350MW and 375MW, depending on the availability of electricity. Residents of the state will have to face power cut on a rotational basis,” a source said.

The crisis began on February 17 when Talcher residents resorted to indefinite rail roko programme demanding stoppage of all express trains at Talcher railway station in Angul district of Orissa.

NTPC’s super thermal power station at Talcher has six units, each of 500MW capacity. Bihar has a share of 377MW in the central schedule. The agitation led to the severe coal crisis at the NTPC’s Talcher power plant as it hampered the movement of railway rakes carrying coal to the plant site. Out of total 850MW, which the board received from central sector and Barauni, it normally provides 413MW to the state capital, whose residents have to face the heat of minor power cuts.

Bihar is completely dependent on the central sector allocation to meet its energy requirement, as there is negligible power generation in the state. The state’s peak power demand stands at 2500MW.

The state requires 350MW of power for essential services. It includes 60MW supply to Nepal according to an agreement of the neighbouring country with the central government, 90MW to the railway, 75MW to continuous process industries, 35MW to defence, airports, university and dairies. Another 20MW is supplied to powerhouses and 20MW to Buddha tourist circuit. Around 50MW power is lost through grid and transmission.

This is the second time in February that Bihar is facing acute power crisis because of coal shortage in NTPC plants. The state had to face severe power crisis for a week from February 6 when a goods train derailment stopped coal supply to NTPC’s Kahalgaon plant.